Script For an Intro Night

When Allan Hurst was faced with the prospect of doing an Intro night for his club, he induced Andy Shore to let him record one of his intro sessions. Allan then transcribed it - pretty much word for word - into a script for an Intro night. He's refined, tweaked, and polished it over the years, and he and Andy have now kindly allowed us to publish it for all of you. As it turns out, this script coincidentally covers all of SSD Week 1, and then some, making for an easy transition into your first class.

While Allan credits Andy for much of this content, Andy in turn credits a number of callers on whose shoulders he feels he stands. Andy provided the following comment, which beautifully describes the spirit that drives the CALLERLAB KnowledgeBase:

"I should note that my own "intro script" was influenced heavily by my own experience watching Harlan Kerr lead several years of intro nights for ECR and FCD. I didn't record him, but made copious notes. He and John Sybalsky were my biggest influences. There's no square dance caller who didn't have a mentor or role model or someone they wanted to (try to) emulate. Even though CALLERLAB has codified much of MWSD, at its core it is still a folk form that morphs and moves along thanks to generations of callers and dancers."

If you have an Intro night, or a party night, on the horizon and you're wondering how to go about it - this document is for you!